As China continues to embrace a new era of hydropower expansion, demand for dam inspection has outpaced the country’s supply of inspectors, ramping up safety fears for thousands of small- and medium-sized dams in China’s rural areas that have been “ignored”, reports Ecns.cn.
People power for China’s rivers
China’s environment minister enlists people power to help clean up the country’s “black and stinky” waterways.
A warning for parched China: a city runs out of water
Experts fear Lintao’s dry-up is a sign of things to come. Probe International fellow and noted Chinese environmental journalist, Dai Qing, says China’s water scarcity and toxicity is the greatest danger facing her country today.
The myth of sustainable hydropower
2016 will be a decisive year for hydropower projects on the mainstream Mekong. Southeast-Asia based journalist, Tom Fawthrop, looks at the notion of ‘nice dams’ that supposedly don’t inflict too much damage on their surrounding environments and their opposite reality: the hidden costs of hydropower and the irreversible destruction of unique ecosystems.
China’s ‘water grab’ and its consequences
Beijing’s revisionist approach to the status quo in Southeast Asia is nowhere more evident than its “land grab” in the South China Sea and “water grab” in the upper reaches of the Mekong River, says renowned Thai commentator Thitinan Pongsudhirak.
Brahma Chellaney: China’s dam boom stokes concerns in Asia
The need for China to enter into institutionalized water-sharing arrangements with its downstream neighbours is key to building water cooperation and the protection of critical ecosystems but its reluctance to do so, says geostrategist and author Brahma Chellaney, is to secure its monetary and political power as the controller of Asia’s major waters.
China damming Lhasa River into artificial lakes
Beijing’s Lhasa River Project comes under fire from high-profile Chinese geologist and environmentalist, Fan Xiao.
China: Pictures of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project
Journalist Sharron Lovell’s gallery of striking images portray the losing end of China’s massive water transfer scheme to alleviate some by taking from others.
Last Harvest
Imagine waking up one day to be told your home and way of life is to be upended for the construction of a massive state water project?
No more major developments on the Yangtze River?
President Xi Jinping’s pledge to prioritize environmental protection and halt new development projects on the Yangtze is a promising turnaround for China’s beleaguered river pulse but don’t hold your breath.
Electric car uptake in China could worsen smog issue
China’s push to replace petrol-engine cars with electric vehicles powered by coal-fired grids fuels fears of worsening pollution problem as the country’s switch to cleaner energy lags behind its “green” car market.
Economics will trump CO2 reduction in China
Cutting CO2 emissions and economic growth are incompatible. The Chinese know it, whatever they said and signed in Paris. This article for the South African Independent Newspapers group highlights the recent Probe International study “The Truth about China” by Patricia Adams.
Paris climate agreement is a triumph of hope over facts
China’s leaders, we are told, are leading us to planetary carbon salvation. For a reality check, consult a new report by Patricia Adams, the executive director of Probe International. Tom Switzer for the Sydney Morning Herald.
The Paris summit: A colossal waste of time
So far, all the pledges from all the countries put together would scarcely budge the needle on the great big global thermostat. This opinion piece for the Globe and Mail quotes Probe International’s new study on China’s climate policy and energy needs.
China’s wind waste
The biggest build-out of wind power “we’ll probably see anywhere” in the world, yet nearly one out of every five wind turbines in China isn’t spinning. Apart from wasting clean energy, this has meant China’s wind power industry has lost more than a billion dollars in the first half of this year alone. Rob Schmitz for Marketplace reports.
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